Few Baby Boomers envision a comfortable retirement, poll shows

AP Photo/Mike GrollBaby boomers are starting to retire but many are agonizing about their finances and, like Ravena, NY-resident Robert Rivers, believe theyâll need to work longer than they anticipated an AP-LifeGoesStrong.com poll shows.

WASHINGTON — Baby
boomers are starting to retire, but many are agonizing about their
finances and believe they'll need to work longer than they had planned, a
new poll finds.

The 77 million-strong generation born between
1946 and 1964 has clung tenaciously to its youth. Now, boomers are
getting nervous about retirement. Only 11 percent say they are strongly
convinced they will be able to live in comfort.

A total of 55
percent said they were either somewhat or very certain they could retire
with financial security. But another 44 percent express little or no
faith they'll have enough money when their careers end.

Further
underscoring the financial squeeze, 1 in 4 boomers still working say
they'll never retire. That's about the same number as those who say they
have no retirement savings.

The Associated
Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll comes as politicians face growing pressure
to curb record federal deficits, and budget hawks of both parties have
expressed a willingness to scale back Social Security, the government's
biggest program.

The survey suggests how politically risky that
would be: 64 percent of boomers see Social Security as the keystone of
their retirement earnings, far outpacing pensions, investments and other
income.

The survey also highlights the particular retirement
challenge facing boomers, who are contemplating exiting the work force
just as the worst economy in seven decades left them coping with high
jobless rates, tattered home values and painfully low interest rates
that stunt the growth of savings.

"I have six kids," said Gary
Marshalek, 62, of South Abington Township, Pa., who services drilling
equipment and says he has repeatedly refinanced his home and dipped into
his pension to pay for his children's college. His inability to afford
retirement "sounds like America at the moment," Marshalek said. "Sounds
like the normal instead of the abnormal."

Marshalek was among the
25 percent in the poll who say they plan to never retire. People who are
unmarried, earn under $50,000 a year, or say they did a poor job of
financial planning are disproportionately represented among that group.

Overall,
nearly 6 in 10 baby boomers say their workplace retirement plans,
personal investments or real estate lost value during the economic
crisis of the past three years. Of this group, 42 percent say they'll
have to delay retirement because their nest eggs shrank.

Though
the first boomers are turning 65 this year, the poll finds that 28
percent already consider themselves retired. Of those still working,
nearly half want to retire by age 65 and about another quarter envision
retiring between 66 and 70.

Two-thirds of those still on the job
say they will keep working after they retire, a plan shared about evenly
across sex, marital status and education lines, the survey finds. That
contrasts with the latest Social Security Administration data on what
older people are actually doing: Among those age 65-74, less than half
earned income from a job in 2008.

"I'm going to keep working after
I retire, if nothing else for the health care," said Nadine Krieger,
58, a food plant worker from East Berlin, Pa. Citing $50,000 in
retirement savings that she says won't go far, she added, "We probably
could have saved more, but you can't when you have a couple of kids in
the house."

About 6 in 10 married boomers expect a comfortable
retirement, compared with just under half of the unmarried.
Midwesterners are most likely to express confidence in their finances.

"I'm
a good planner," said Robert Rivers, 63, a retired New York State
employee in Ravena, N.Y. He still works seasonally for the federal
government and collects a modest military pension. A recreational pilot,
he says he has scaled back his lifestyle by flying and driving less.

"I'm spending money I have, not spending it and trying to repay it," he said.

Among
boomers like Rivers who plan to continue working in retirement, 35
percent say they'll do so to make ends meet. Slightly fewer cite a
desire to earn money for extras or to simply stay busy.

Excluding
their homes, 24 percent of boomers say they have no retirement savings.
Those with nothing include about 4 in 10 who are non-white, are
unmarried or didn't finish college.

At the other end, about 1 in
10 say they have banked at least $500,000. Those who have saved at least
something typically have squirreled away $100,000, with about half
putting away more than that and half less.

Despite the worries and
dearth of savings cited by many, only about a third of boomers say it's
likely that they'll have to make do with a more modest lifestyle once
they retire. Only about 1 in 4 expect to struggle just to pay their
expenses.

Financial experts say such expectations are often not realistic.

"Most
families have to make a significant adjustment from their working lives
to their retirement years," said financial planner Sheryl Garrett, who
runs the Garrett Planning Network. Ads that show silver-haired couples
strolling off into the sunset do not represent the typical retirement,
she added.

The AP-LifeGoesStrong.com poll was conducted from March
4-13 by Knowledge Networks of Menlo Park, Calif., and involved online
interviews with 1,160 baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. The
margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Knowledge
Networks used traditional telephone and mail sampling methods to
randomly recruit respondents. People selected who had no Internet access
were given it for free.